Role-driven notification system including support for collapsing combinations

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the invention relate to a method of implementing role-driven notification. The method includes storing, by a cloud infrastructure system including computing devices, notification templates. Each of the notification templates are associated with a role. The method further includes determining that a user is associated with a first role and a second role, determining that the first role is associated with a first notification template and the second role is associated with a second notification template. Further, the method includes combining the first template and the second template to generate a third template, based on the third template, generating a notification. The method then, sends the notification to the user.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a non-provisional of and claims the benefitand priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of the following applications, theentire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference for allpurposes:

(1) U.S. provisional Application No. 61/698,413, filed on Sep. 7, 2012,entitled TENANT AUTOMATION SYSTEM, Attorney Docket No.88325-849304(131001US);(2) U.S. provisional Application No. 61/698,459, filed on Sep. 7, 2012,entitled SERVICE DEVELOPMENT INFRASTRUCTURE, Attorney Docket No.88325-849687(131401US); and(3) U.S. provisional Application No. 61/785,299, filed on Mar. 14, 2013,entitled CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE, Attorney Docket No. 88325-868066(137401US).

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to computer systems and software, andmore particularly to techniques for facilitating and automating theprovision of services in a cloud environment.

Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand networkaccess to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g.,networks, servers, storage, applications, and services). The servicesprovided or accessed through the cloud (or network) are referred to ascloud services. There is a lot of processing that needs to be performedby a cloud service provider to make cloud services available to asubscribing customer. Due to its complexity, much of this processing isstill done manually. For example, provisioning resources for providingsuch cloud services can be a very labor intensive process.

SUMMARY

This summary is not intended to identify key or essential features ofthe claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used in isolationto determine the scope of the claimed subject matter. The subject mattershould be understood by reference to appropriate portions of the entirespecification of this patent, any or all drawings and each claim.

One embodiment of the invention relates to a method of implementingrole-driven notification. The method includes storing, by a cloudinfrastructure system including computing devices, notificationtemplates. Each of the notification templates is associated with a role.The method further includes determining that a user is associated with afirst role and a second role, determining that the first role isassociated with a first notification template and the second role isassociated with a second notification template. Further, the methodincludes combining the first template and the second template togenerate a third template, based on the third template, generating anotification. The method then, sends the notification to the user.

The method further includes combining of the first notification templateand the second notification template by removing any of the notificationinformation from the first notification template of the secondnotification template that is redundant. Further, the third notificationtemplate comprises the least amount of notification informationnecessary from the first and second notification templates, and rolesare arranged in a roles hierarchy.

The notification templates are arranged in a template hierarchy whichmaps to the roles hierarchy, and the method includes determining alocation of the user in the role hierarchy and the notificationhierarchy, based on the location, collapsing each child notificationtemplates below the location in the hierarchy into a single collapsedtemplate, and based on the single collapsed template, generating acollapsed notification, wherein the collapsed notification includes thefewest number of notifications location within the role hierarchy.

The roles in the hierarchy of roles overlap, restrictions are associatedwith one or more of the roles which restricts one or more of thenotification information from being included in the notification, thetemplates are pre-registered and the combining occurs before runtime,and the notification information for each of the notification templatesare stored in XML and the association of a role with a notificationtemplate is stored in metadata.

In a further embodiment, a cloud infrastructure system for implementingrole-driven notification, is described. The system includes a processor,and a storage device including sets of instructions stored thereon. Whenexecuted by the processor the instructions cause the processor to storenotification templates. Each of the notification templates is associatedwith a role. The instructions further cause the processor to determinethat a user is associated with a first role and a second role, determinethat the first role is associated with a first notification template andthe second role is associated with a second notification template,combine the first template and the second template to generate a thirdtemplate, and based on the third template, generate a notification. Thenotification includes notification information from the first templateand the second template. Then the processor sends the notification tothe user.

In yet another embodiment, a non-transitory computer-readable medium forimplementing role-driven notifications having sets of instructionsstored thereon, is described. When the instructions are executed by acomputer, the computer is caused to store a notification templates. Eachof the notification templates is associated with a role. Theinstructions further cause the computer to determine that a user isassociated with a first role and a second role of the plurality ofroles, determine that the first role is associated with a firstnotification template and the second role is associated with a secondnotification template, combine the first template and the secondtemplate to generate a third template, based on the third template,generate a notification. The notification includes notificationinformation from the first template and the second template. Then, thecomputer sends the notification to the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Illustrative embodiments of the present invention are described indetail below with reference to the following drawing figures:

FIG. 1A is a logical view of a cloud infrastructure system according toone embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1B is a simplified block diagram of a hardware/software stack thatmay be used to implement a cloud infrastructure system according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a system environment forimplementing the cloud infrastructure system shown in FIG. 1A.

FIG. 3A depicts a simplified flowchart 300 depicting processing that maybe performed by the TAS module in the cloud infrastructure system, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3B depicts a simplified high level diagram of one or moresub-modules in the TAS module in the cloud infrastructure system, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary distributed deployment of the TAS component,according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a simplified block diagram illustrating the interactions ofthe SDI module with one or more modules in the cloud infrastructuresystem, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 depicts a simplified high level diagram of sub-modules of the SDImodule according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7A depicts a simplified flowchart depicting processing that may beperformed by the SDI component in the cloud infrastructure system, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7B depicts a simplified block diagram showing the high-levelarchitecture of a Nuviaq system 710 and its relationships with othercloud infrastructure components according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 7C depicts an example sequence diagram illustrating steps of aprovisioning process using a Nuviaq system according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 7D depicts TAS 204 and SDI 206 working in cooperation areresponsible for provisioning resources for one or more services orderedby a customer from a set of services offered by the cloud infrastructuresystem according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7E depicts an example sequence diagram illustrating steps of adeployment process using a Nuviaq system according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 7F depicts an example of database instances provisioned for adatabase service according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 depicts a simplified block showing processing that may beperformed by a notification system within the TAS module, in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 depicts a simplified flowchart showing processing that may beperformed by a notification system within the TAS module, in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 depicts a simplified flowchart diagram showing processing thatmay be performed by a notification system within the TAS module, inaccordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a simplified block diagram of a computing system 1000 thatmay be used in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, specificdetails are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding ofembodiments of the invention. However, it will be apparent that variousembodiments may be practiced without these specific details. The figuresand description are not intended to be restrictive.

Certain embodiments of the present invention provide techniques forautomating the provisioning, managing and tracking of services providedby a cloud infrastructure system.

In certain embodiments, a cloud infrastructure system may include asuite of applications, middleware and database service offerings thatare delivered to a customer in a self-service, subscription-based,elastically scalable, reliable, highly available, and secure manner. Anexample of such a cloud infrastructure system is the Oracle Public Cloudprovided by the present assignee.

A cloud infrastructure system may provide many capabilities including,but not limited to, provisioning, managing and tracking a customer'ssubscription for services and resources in the cloud infrastructuresystem, providing predictable operating expenses to customers utilizingthe services in the cloud infrastructure system, providing robustidentity domain separation and protection of a customer's data in thecloud infrastructure system, providing customers with a transparentarchitecture and control of the design of the cloud infrastructuresystem, providing customers assured data protection and compliance withdata privacy standards and regulations, providing customers with anintegrated development experience for building and deploying services inthe cloud infrastructure system and providing customers with a seamlessintegration between business software, middleware, database andinfrastructure services in the cloud infrastructure system.

In certain embodiments, services provided by the cloud infrastructuresystem may include a host of services that are made available to usersof the cloud infrastructure system on demand such as online data storageand backup solutions, Web-based e-mail services, hosted office suitesand document collaboration services, database processing, managedtechnical support services and the like. Services provided by the cloudinfrastructure system can dynamically scale to meet the needs of itsusers. A specific instantiation of a service provided by cloudinfrastructure system is referred to herein as a service instance. Ingeneral, any service made available to a user via a communicationnetwork such as the Internet from a cloud service provider's system isreferred to as a cloud service. Typically, in a public cloudenvironment, servers and systems that make up the cloud serviceprovider's system are different from the customer's own on-premisesservers and systems. For example, a cloud service provider's system mayhost an application and a user may, via a communication network such asthe Internet, on demand, order and use the application.

A service in a computer network cloud infrastructure includes protectedcomputer network access to storage, a hosted database, a hosted webserver, a software application, or other service provided by a cloudvendor to a user, or as otherwise known in the art. For example, aservice can include password-protected access to remote storage on thecloud through the Internet. As another example, a service can include aweb service-based hosted relational database and script-languagemiddleware engine for private use by a networked developer. As anotherexample, a service can include access to an email software applicationhosted on a cloud vendor's web site.

FIG. 1A is a logical view of a cloud infrastructure system according toone embodiment of the present invention. Cloud infrastructure system 100may provide a variety of services via a cloud or networked environment.These services may include one or more services provided under Softwareas a Service (SaaS) category, Platform as a Service (PaaS) category,Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) category, or other categories ofservices including hybrid services. A customer, via a subscriptionorder, may order one or more services provided by cloud infrastructuresystem 100. Cloud infrastructure system 100 then performs processing toprovide the services in the customer's subscription order.

Cloud infrastructure system 100 may provide the cloud services viadifferent deployment models. For example, services may be provided undera public cloud model where cloud infrastructure system 100 is owned byan organization selling cloud services (e.g., owned by Oracle) and theservices are made available to the general public or different industryenterprises. As another example, services may be provided under aprivate cloud model where cloud infrastructure system 100 is operatedsolely for a single organization and may provide services for one ormore entities within the organization. The cloud services may also beprovided under a community cloud model where cloud infrastructure system100 and the services provided by system 100 are shared by severalorganizations in a related community. The cloud services may also beprovided under a hybrid cloud model, which is a combination of two ormore different models.

As shown in FIG. 1A, cloud infrastructure system 100 may comprisemultiple components, which working in conjunction, enable provision ofservices provided by cloud infrastructure system 100. In the embodimentillustrated in FIG. 1A, cloud infrastructure system 100 includes a SaaSplatform 102, a PaaS platform 104, an IaaS platform 110, infrastructureresources 106, and cloud management functionality 108. These componentsmay be implemented in hardware, or software, or combinations thereof.

SaaS platform 102 is configured to provide cloud services that fallunder the SaaS category. For example, SaaS platform 102 may providecapabilities to build and deliver a suite of on-demand applications onan integrated development and deployment platform. SaaS platform 102 maymanage and control the underlying software and infrastructure forproviding the SaaS services. By utilizing the services provided by SaaSplatform 102, customers can utilize applications executing on cloudinfrastructure system 100. Customers can acquire the applicationservices without the need for customers to purchase separate licensesand support.

Various different SaaS services may be provided. Examples includewithout limitation services that provide solutions for sales performancemanagement, enterprise integration and business flexibility for largeorganizations, and the like. In one embodiment, the SaaS services mayinclude Customer Relationship Management (CRM) services 110 (e.g.,Fusion CRM services provided by the Oracle cloud), Human CapitalManagement (HCM)/Talent Management services 112, and the like. CRMservices 110 may include services directed to reporting and managementof a sales activity cycle to a customer, and others. HCM/Talent services112 may include services directed to providing global workforcelifecycle management and talent management services to a customer.

Various different PaaS services may be provided by PaaS platform 104 ina standardized, shared and elastically scalable application developmentand deployment platform. Examples of PaaS services may include withoutlimitation services that enable organizations (such as Oracle) toconsolidate existing applications on a shared, common architecture, aswell as the ability to build new applications that leverage the sharedservices provided by the platform. PaaS platform 104 may manage andcontrol the underlying software and infrastructure for providing thePaaS services. Customers can acquire the PaaS services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 100 without the need for customers to purchaseseparate licenses and support. Examples of PaaS services include withoutlimitation Oracle Java Cloud Service (JCS), Oracle Database CloudService (DBCS), and others.

By utilizing the services provided by PaaS platform 104, customers canutilize programming languages and tools supported by cloudinfrastructure system 100 and also control the deployed services. Insome embodiments, PaaS services provided by the cloud infrastructuresystem 100 may include database cloud services 114, middleware cloudservices (e.g., Oracle Fusion Middleware services) 116 and Java cloudservices 117. In one embodiment, database cloud services 114 may supportshared service deployment models that enable organizations to pooldatabase resources and offer customers a database-as-a-service in theform of a database cloud, middleware cloud services 116 provides aplatform for customers to develop and deploy various businessapplications and Java cloud services 117 provides a platform forcustomers to deploy Java applications, in the cloud infrastructuresystem 100. The components in SaaS platform 102 and PaaS platform 104illustrated in FIG. 1A are meant for illustrative purposes only and arenot intended to limit the scope of embodiments of the present invention.In alternate embodiments, SaaS platform 102 and PaaS platform 104 mayinclude additional components for providing additional services to thecustomers of cloud infrastructure system 100.

Various different IaaS services may be provided by IaaS platform 110.The IaaS services facilitate the management and control of theunderlying computing resources such as storage, networks, and otherfundamental computing resources for customers utilizing servicesprovided by the SaaS platform and the PaaS platform.

In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 100 includesinfrastructure resources 106 for providing the resources used to providevarious services to customers of the cloud infrastructure system 100. Inone embodiment, infrastructure resources 106 includes pre-integrated andoptimized combinations of hardware such as servers, storage andnetworking resources to execute the services provided by the PaaSplatform and the SaaS platform.

In certain embodiments, cloud management functionality 108 providescomprehensive management of cloud services (e.g., SaaS, PaaS, IaaSservices) in the cloud infrastructure system 100. In one embodiment,cloud management functionality 108 includes capabilities forprovisioning, managing and tracking a customer's subscription receivedby the cloud infrastructure system 100, and the like.

FIG. 1B is a simplified block diagram of a hardware/software stack thatmay be used to implement cloud infrastructure system 100 according to anembodiment of the present invention. It should be appreciated thatimplementation depicted in FIG. 1B may have other components than thosedepicted in FIG. 1B. Further, the embodiment shown in FIG. 1B is onlyone example of a cloud infrastructure system that may incorporate anembodiment of the invention. In some other embodiments, cloudinfrastructure system 100 may have more or fewer components than shownin FIG. 1B, may combine two or more components, or may have a differentconfiguration or arrangement of components. In certain embodiments, thehardware and software components are stacked so as to provide verticalintegration that provides optimal performance.

Various types of users may interact with cloud infrastructure system100. These users may include, for example, end users 150 that caninteract with cloud infrastructure system 100 using various clientdevices such as desktops, mobile devices, tablets, and the like. Theusers may also include developers/programmers 152 who may interact withcloud infrastructure system 100 using command line interfaces (CLIs),application programming interfaces (APIs), through various integrateddevelopment environments (IDEs), and via other applications. User mayalso include operations personnel 154. These may include personnel ofthe cloud service provider or personnel of other users.

Application services layer 156 identifies various cloud services thatmay be offered by cloud infrastructure system 100. These services may bemapped to or associated with respective software components 160 (e.g.,Oracle WebLogic server for providing Java services, oracle database forproviding database services, and the like) via a service integration andlinkages layer 158.

In certain embodiments, a number of internal services 162 may beprovided that are shared by different components or modules of cloudinfrastructure system 100 and by the services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 100. These internal shared services may include,without limitation, a security and identity service, an integrationservice, an enterprise repository service, an enterprise managerservice, a virus scanning and white list service, a high availability,backup and recovery service, service for enabling cloud support in IDEs,an email service, a notification service, a file transfer service, andthe like.

Runtime infrastructure layer 164 represents the hardware layer on whichthe various other layers and components are built. In certainembodiments, runtime infrastructure layer 164 may comprise one Oracle'sExadata machines for providing storage, processing, and networkingresources. An Exadata machine may be composed of various databaseservers, storage Servers, networking resources, and other components forhosting cloud-services related software layers. In certain embodiments,the Exadata machines may be designed to work with Oracle Exalogic, whichis an engineered system providing an assemblage of storage, compute,network, and software resources. The combination of Exadata and Exalogicprovides a complete hardware and software engineered solution thatdelivers high-performance, highly available, scalable, secure, and amanaged platform for providing cloud services.

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a system environment forimplementing the cloud infrastructure system shown in FIG. 1A accordingto an embodiment of the present invention. In the illustratedembodiment, system environment 230 includes one or more client computingdevices 224, 226 and 228 that may be used by users to interact withcloud infrastructure system 100. A client device may be configured tooperate a client application such as a web browser, a proprietary clientapplication (e.g., Oracle Forms), or some other application, which maybe used by a user of the client device to interact with cloudinfrastructure system 100 to utilize services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 100.

It should be appreciated that cloud infrastructure system 100 depictedin FIG. 2 may have other components than those depicted in FIG. 2.Further, the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is only one example of a cloudinfrastructure system that may incorporate an embodiment of theinvention. In some other embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 100may have more or fewer components than shown in FIG. 2, may combine twoor more components, or may have a different configuration or arrangementof components.

Client computing devices 224, 226 and 228 may be general purposepersonal computers (including, by way of example, personal computersand/or laptop computers running various versions of Microsoft Windowsand/or Apple Macintosh operating systems), cell phones or PDAs (runningsoftware such as Microsoft Windows Mobile and being Internet, e-mail,SMS, Blackberry, or other communication protocol enabled), workstationcomputers running any of a variety of commercially-available UNIX orUNIX-like operating systems (including without limitation the variety ofGNU/Linux operating systems), or any other computing device. Forexample, client computing devices 224, 226 and 228 may be any otherelectronic device, such as a thin-client computer, Internet-enabledgaming system, and/or personal messaging device, capable ofcommunicating over a network (e.g., network 232 described below).Although exemplary system environment 230 is shown with three clientcomputing devices, any number of client computing devices may besupported. Other devices such as devices with sensors, etc. may interactwith cloud infrastructure system 100.

A network 232 may facilitate communications and exchange of data betweenclients 224, 226 and 228 and cloud infrastructure system 100. Network232 may be any type of network familiar to those skilled in the art thatcan support data communications using any of a variety ofcommercially-available protocols, including without limitation TCP/IP,SNA, IPX, AppleTalk, and the like. Merely by way of example, network 232can be a local area network (LAN) such as an Ethernet network, aToken-Ring network and/or the like, a wide-area network, a virtualnetwork, including without limitation a virtual private network (VPN),the Internet, an intranet, an extranet, a public switched telephonenetwork (PSTN), an infra-red network, a wireless network (e.g., anetwork operating under any of the IEEE 802.1x suite of protocols, theBluetooth protocol known in the art, and/or any other wirelessprotocol), and/or any combination of these and/or other networks.

Cloud infrastructure system 100 may comprise one or more computersand/or servers which may be general purpose computers, specializedserver computers (including, by way of example, PC servers, UNIXservers, mid-range servers, mainframe computers, rack-mounted servers,etc.), server farms, server clusters, or any other appropriatearrangement and/or combination. The computing devices that make up cloudinfrastructure system 100 may run any of operating systems or a varietyof additional server applications and/or mid-tier applications,including HTTP servers, FTP servers, CGI servers, Java servers, databaseservers, and the like. Exemplary database servers include withoutlimitation those commercially available from Oracle, Microsoft, Sybase,IBM and the like.

In various embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 100 may be adaptedto automatically provision, manage and track a customer's subscriptionto services offered by cloud infrastructure system 100. In oneembodiment, as depicted in FIG. 2, the components in cloudinfrastructure system 100 include an Identity Management (IDM) module200, a services module 202, a Tenant Automation System (TAS) module 204,a Service Deployment Infrastructure (SDI) module 206, an EnterpriseManager (EM) module 208, one or more front-end web interfaces such as astore user interface (UI) 210, a cloud user interface (UI) 212, and asupport user interface (UI) 216, an order management module 214, salespersonnel 218, operator personnel 220 and an order database 224. Thesemodules may include or be provided using one or more computers and/orservers which may be general purpose computers, specialized servercomputers, server farms, server clusters, or any other appropriatearrangement and/or combination. In one embodiment, one or more of thesemodules can be provided by cloud management functionality 108 or IaaSplatform 110 in cloud infrastructure system 100. The various modules ofthe cloud infrastructure system 100 depicted in FIG. 2 are meant forillustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope ofembodiments of the present invention. Alternative embodiments mayinclude more or fewer modules than those shown in FIG. 2.

In an exemplary operation, at (1) a customer using a client device suchas client device 224 or 226 may interact with cloud infrastructuresystem 100 by browsing the various services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 100 and placing an order for a subscription forone or more services offered by cloud infrastructure system 100. Incertain embodiments, the customer may access store UI 210 or cloud UI212 and place a subscription order via these user interfaces.

The order information received by cloud infrastructure system 100 inresponse to the customer placing an order may include informationidentifying the customer and one or more services offered by the cloudinfrastructure system 100 that the customer intends to subscribe to. Asingle order may include orders for multiple services. For instance, acustomer may login to cloud UI 212 and request a subscription for a CRMservice and a Java cloud service in the same order.

Additionally, the order may also include one or more service levels forthe ordered services. As used herein, and as will be discussed ingreater detail below, a service level for a service determines theamount of resources to be allocated for providing the requested servicein the context of the subscription, such as the amount of storage,amount of computing resources, data transfer facilities, and the like.For example, a basic service level may provide a minimum level ofstorage, data transmission, or number of users, and higher servicelevels may include additional resources.

In addition, in some instances, the order information received by cloudinfrastructure system 100 may include information indicative of acustomer level, and the time period during which the service is desired.The customer level specifies the priority of the customer making thesubscription request. In one example, the priority may be determinedbased on the quality of service that the cloud infrastructure system 100guarantees or promises the customer as specified by a Service LevelAgreement (SLA) agreed to between the customer and the provider of thecloud services. In one example, the different customer levels include abasic level, a silver level and a gold level. The time period for aservice may specify the start date and time for the service and the timeperiod for which the service is desired (e.g., a service end date andtime may be specified).

In one embodiment, a customer may request a new subscription via storeUI 210 or request for a trial subscription via cloud UI 212. In certainembodiments, store UI 210 may represent the service provider's eCommercestore front (e.g., www.oracle.com/store for Oracle Cloud services).Cloud UI 212 may represent a business interface for the serviceprovider. Consumer can explore available services and sign up forinterested services through cloud UI 212. Cloud UI 212 captures userinput necessary for ordering trial subscriptions provided by cloudinfrastructure system 100. Cloud UI 212 may also be used to view accountfeatures and configure the runtime environment located within cloudinfrastructure system 100. In addition to placing an order for a newsubscription, store UI 210 may also enable the customer to perform othersubscription-related tasks such as changing the service level of asubscription, extending the term of the subscription, increasing theservice level of a subscription, terminating an existing subscription,and the like.

After an order has been placed per (1), at (2), the order informationthat is received via either store UI 210 or cloud UI 212 is stored inorder database 224, which can be one of several databases operated bycloud infrastructure system 100 and utilized in conjunction with othersystem elements. While order database 224 is shown logically as a singledatabase in FIG. 2, in actual implementation, this may comprise one ormore databases.

At (3), the order is forwarded to order management module 214. Ordermanagement module 214 is configured to perform billing and accountingfunctions related to the order such as verifying the order and uponverification, booking the order. In certain embodiments, ordermanagement module 214 may include a contract management module and aninstall base module. The contract management module may store contractinformation associated with the customer's subscription order such asthe customer's service level agreement (SLA) with cloud infrastructuresystem 100. The install base module may include detailed descriptions ofthe services in the customer's subscription order. In addition to orderinformation, the install base module may track installation detailsrelated to the services, product status and support service historyrelated to the services. As a customer orders new services or upgradesexisting ones, the install base module may automatically add new orderinformation.

At (4), information regarding the order is communicated to TAS module204. In one embodiment, TAS module 204 utilizes the order information toorchestrate the provisioning of services and resources for the orderplaced by the customer. At (5), TAS component 204 orchestrates theprovisioning of resources to support the subscribed services using theservices of SDI module 206. At (6) TAS module 204 provides informationrelated to the provisioned order received from SDI module 206 toservices module 202. In some embodiments, at (7), SDI module 206 mayalso use services provided by services module 202 to allocate andconfigure the resources needed to fulfill the customer's subscriptionorder.

At (8), services module 202 sends a notification to the customers onclient devices 224, 226 and 228 regarding the status of the order.

In certain embodiments, TAS module 204 functions as an orchestrationcomponent that manages business processes associated with each order andapplies business logic to determine whether an order should proceed toprovisioning. In one embodiment, upon receiving an order for a newsubscription, TAS module 204 sends a request to SDI module 206 toallocate resources and configure those resources needed to fulfill thesubscription order. SDI module 206 enables the allocation of resourcesfor the services ordered by the customer. SDI module 206 provides alevel of abstraction between the cloud services provided by cloudinfrastructure system 100 and the physical implementation layer that isused to provision the resources for providing the requested services.TAS module 204 may thus be isolated from implementation details such aswhether or not services and resources are actually provisioned on thefly or pre-provisioned and only allocated/assigned upon request.

In certain embodiments, a user may use store UI 210 to directly interactwith order management module 214 to perform billing and accountingrelated functions such as verifying the order and upon verification,booking the order. In some embodiments, instead of a customer placing anorder, at (9), the order may instead be placed by sales personnel 218 onbehalf of the customer such as a customer's service representative orsales representative. Sales personnel 218 may directly interact withorder management module 214 via a user interface (not shown in FIG. 2)provided by order management module 214 for placing orders or forproviding quotes for the customer. This, for example, may be done forlarge customers where the order may be placed by the customer's salesrepresentative through order management module 214. The salesrepresentative may set up the subscription on behalf of the customer.

EM module 208 is configured to monitor activities related to managingand tracking a customer's subscription in cloud infrastructure system100. EM module 208 collects usage statistics for the services in thesubscription order such as the amount of storage used, the amount datatransferred, the number of users, and the amount of system up time andsystem down time. At (10), a host operator personnel 220, who may be anemployee of a provider of cloud infrastructure system 100, may interactwith EM module 208 via an enterprise manager user interface (not shownin FIG. 2) to manage systems and resources on which services areprovisioned within cloud infrastructure system 100.

Identity management (IDM) module 200 is configured to provide identityservices such as access management and authorization services in cloudinfrastructure system 100. In one embodiment, IDM module 200 controlsinformation about customers who wish to utilize the services provided bycloud infrastructure system 100. Such information can includeinformation that authenticates the identities of such customers andinformation that describes which actions those customers are authorizedto perform relative to various system resources (e.g., files,directories, applications, communication ports, memory segments, etc.)IDM module 200 can also include the management of descriptiveinformation about each customer and about how and by whom thatdescriptive information can be accessed and modified.

In one embodiment, information managed by the identity management module200 can be partitioned to create separate identity domains. Informationbelonging to a particular identity domain can be isolated from all otheridentity domains. Also, an identity domain can be shared by multipleseparate tenants. Each such tenant can be a customer subscribing toservices in the cloud infrastructure system 100. In some embodiments, acustomer can have one or many identity domains, and each identity domainmay be associated with one or more subscriptions, each subscriptionhaving one or many services. For example, a single customer canrepresent a large entity and identity domains may be created fordivisions/departments within this large entity. EM module 208 and IDMmodule 200 may in turn interact with order management module 214 at (11)and (12) respectively to manage and track the customer's subscriptionsin cloud infrastructure system 100.

In one embodiment, at (13), support services may also be provided to thecustomer via a support UI 216. In one embodiment, support UI 216 enablessupport personnel to interact with order management module 214 via asupport backend system to perform support services at (14). Supportpersonnel in the cloud infrastructure system 100 as well as customerscan submit bug reports and check the status of these reports via supportUI 216.

Other interfaces, not shown in FIG. 2 may also be provided by cloudinfrastructure system 100. For example, an identity domain administratormay use a user interface to IDM module 200 to configure domain and useridentities. In addition, customers may log into a separate interface foreach service they wish to utilize. In certain embodiments, a customerwho wishes to subscribe to one or more services offered by cloudinfrastructure system 100 may also be assigned various roles andresponsibilities. In one embodiment, the different roles andresponsibilities that may be assigned for a customer may include that ofa buyer, an account administrator, a service administrator, an identitydomain administrator or a user who utilizes the services and resourcesoffered by cloud infrastructure system 100. The different roles andresponsibilities are described more fully in FIG. 4 below.

FIG. 3A depicts a simplified flowchart 300 depicting processing that maybe performed by the TAS module in the cloud infrastructure system, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The processingdepicted in FIG. 3A may be implemented in software (e.g., code,instructions, program) executed by one or more processors, hardware, orcombinations thereof. The software may be stored in memory (e.g., on amemory device, on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium).The particular series of processing steps depicted in FIG. 3A is notintended to be limiting. Other sequences of steps may also be performedaccording to alternative embodiments.

For example, alternative embodiments of the present invention mayperform the steps outlined above in a different order. Moreover, theindividual steps illustrated in FIG. 3A may include multiple sub-stepsthat may be performed in various sequences as appropriate to theindividual step. Furthermore, additional steps may be added or removeddepending on the particular applications. One of ordinary skill in theart would recognize many variations, modifications, and alternatives. Inone embodiment, the processing depicted in FIG. 3A may be performed byone or more components in TAS component 204 as will be described indetail in FIG. 3B.

At 302, a customer's subscription order is processed. The processing mayinclude validating the order, in one example. Validating the orderincludes ensuring that the customer has paid for the subscription andensuring that the customer does not already have subscriptions with thesame name or that the customer is not attempting to create multiplesubscriptions of the same type in the same identity domain forsubscription types for which this is disallowed (such as, in the case ofa CRM service). Processing may also include tracking the status of anorder for each order that is being processed by cloud infrastructuresystem 100.

At 304, a business process associated with the order is identified. Insome instances, multiple business processes may be identified for anorder. Each business process identifies a series of steps for processingvarious aspects of the order. As an example, a first business processmay identify one or more steps related to provisioning physicalresources for the order, a second business process may identify one ormore steps related to creating an identity domain along with customeridentities for the order, a third business process may identify one ormore steps for related to performing back office functions such ascreating a customer record for the user, performing accounting functionsrelated to the order, and the like. In certain embodiments, differentbusiness processes may also be identified for processing differentservices in an order. For example, different business process may beidentified to process a CRM service and a database service.

At 306, the business process identified for the order in 304 isexecuted. Executing the business process associated with the order mayinclude orchestrating the series of steps associated with the businessprocess identified in step 304. For example, executing a businessprocess related to provisioning physical resources for the order mayinclude sending a request to SDI module 206 to allocate resources andconfigure those resources needed to fulfill the subscription order.

At 308, a notification is sent to the customer regarding the status ofthe provisioned order. Additional description related to performingsteps 302, 304, 306 and 308 is provided in detail in FIG. 3B.

FIG. 3B depicts a simplified high level diagram of one or moresub-modules in the TAS module in the cloud infrastructure system, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In oneembodiment, the modules depicted in FIG. 3B perform the processingdescribed in steps 302-308 discussed in FIG. 3A. In the illustratedembodiment, TAS module 204 comprises an order processing module 310, abusiness process identifier 312, a busines process executor 316, anoverage framework 322, a workflow identification module 324, and abundled subscription generator module 326. These modules may beimplemented in hardware, or software, or combinations thereof.

The various modules of the TAS module depicted in FIG. 3B are meant forillustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope ofembodiments of the present invention. Alternative embodiments mayinclude more or fewer modules than those shown in FIG. 3B.

In one embodiment, order processing module 310 receives an order from acustomer from one or more input sources 321. For example, orderprocessing module 310 may directly receive an order via cloud UI 212 orstore UI 210, in one embodiment. Alternatively, order processing module310 may receive an order from order management module 214 or orderdatabase 224. Order processing module 310 then processes the order. Incertain embodiments, processing the order includes generating a customerrecord which includes information about the order such as a servicetype, a service level, a customer level, the type of resources, theamount of the resources to be allocated to the service instance and atime period during which the service is desired. As part of theprocessing, order processing module 310 also determines whether theorder is a valid order. This includes ensuring that the customer doesnot already have subscriptions with the same name or that the customeris not attempting to create multiple subscriptions of the same type inthe same identity domain for subscription types where this is disallowed(such as, in the case of a fusion CRM service).

Order processing module 310 may also perform additional processing onthe order. Processing may include tracking the status of an order foreach order that is being processed by cloud infrastructure system 100.In one embodiment, order processing module 310 may process each order toidentify a number of states pertaining to the order. In one example, thedifferent states of an order may be an initialized state, a provisionedstate, an active state, an administration required state, an errorstate, and the like. An initialized state refers to the state of a neworder; a provisioned state refers to the state of an order once theservices and resources for the order have been provisioned. An order isin an active state when the order has been processed by TAS module 204and a notification to that effect has been delivered to the customer. Anorder is in an administration required state when intervention by anadministrator is needed to resolve the issue. The order is in an errorstate when the order cannot be processed. In addition to maintaining theorder progress status, order processing module 310 also maintainsdetailed information about any failures encountered during processexecution. In other embodiments, and as will be discussed in detailbelow, the additional processing performed by order processing module310 may also include changing the service level for a service in thesubscription, changing the services included in the subscription,extending the time period of the subscription, and canceling thesubscription or specifying different service levels for different timeperiods in the subscription.

After an order has been processed by order processing module 310,business logic is applied to determine whether the order should proceedto provisioning. In one embodiment, as part of orchestrating the order,business process identifier 312 receives the processed order from orderprocessing module 310 and applies business logic to identify aparticular business process to use for the order being processed. In oneembodiment, business process identifier 312 may utilize informationstored in a service catalog 314 to determine the particular businessprocess to be used for the order. In one embodiment, and as discussed inFIG. 3A, multiple business processes may be identified for an order andeach business process identifies a series of steps for processingvarious aspects of the order. In another embodiment, and as discussedabove, different business processes may be defined for different typesof services, or combinations of services such as a CRM service or adatabase service. In one embodiment, service catalog 314 may storeinformation mapping an order to a particular type of business process.Business process identifier 312 may use this information to identify aspecific business process for the order being processed.

Once a business process has been identified, business process identifier312 communicates the particular business process to be executed tobusiness process executor 316. Business process executor 316 thenexecutes steps of the identified business process by operating inconjunction with one or more modules in the cloud infrastructure system100. In some embodiments, business process executor 316 acts as anorchestrator for performing the steps associated with a businessprocess. For example, the business process executor may interact withorder processing module 310 to execute steps in a business process thatidentifies workflows related to the order, determines the overage ofservices in the order or identifies service components related to theorder.

In one example, business process executor 316 interacts with SDI module206 to execute steps in a business process for allocating andprovisioning resources for services requested in the subscription order.In this example, for each step in the business process, business processexecutor 316 may send a request to SDI component 206 to allocateresources and configure resources needed to fulfill the particular step.SDI component 206 is responsible for the actual allocation of theresources. Once all the steps of the business processes of an order havebeen executed, business process executor 316 may send a notification tothe customer of the processed order by utilizing the services ofservices component 202. The notification may include sending an emailnotification to the customer with details of the processed order. Theemail notification may also include deployment information related tothe order to enable the customer to access the subscribed services.

In certain embodiments, TAS module 204 may provide one or more TASApplication Programming Interfaces (APIs) 318 that enable TAS module 204to interact with other modules in cloud infrastructure system 100 andfor other modules to interact with TAS module 204. For example, the TASAPIs may include a system provisioning API that interacts with SDImodule 206 via an asynchronous Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)based web services call to provision resources for the customer'ssubscription order. In one embodiment, TAS module 204 may also utilizethe system provisioning API to accomplish system and service instancecreation and deletion, switch a service instance to an increased servicelevel, and associate service instances. An example of this is theassociation of a Java service instance to a fusion applications serviceinstance to allow secure web service communications. The TAS APIs mayalso include a notification API that interacts with the services module202 to notify the customer of a processed order. In certain embodiments,the TAS module 204 also periodically propagates subscriptioninformation, outages, and notifications (e.g. planned downtime) toservices component 202.

In certain embodiments, TAS module 204 periodically receives usagestatistics for each of the provisioned services such as the amount ofstorage used, the amount data transferred, the number of users, and theamount of system up time and system down time from EM module 208.Overage framework 322 utilizes the usage statistics to determine whetherover use of a service has occurred, and if so, to determine how much tobill for the overage, and provides this information to order managementmodule 214.

In certain embodiments, TAS module 204 includes an order workflowidentification module 324 that is configured to identify one or moreworkflows associated with processing a customer's subscription order. Incertain embodiments, TAS module 204 may include a subscription ordergeneration framework 326 for generating subscription orders for acustomer when the customer places a subscription order for one or moreservices offered by the cloud infrastructure system 100. In oneembodiment, a subscription order includes one or more service componentsresponsible for providing the services requested by a customer in thesubscription order.

Additionally, TAS module 204 may also interact with one or moreadditional databases such as a Tenant Information System (TIS) database320 to enable the provisioning of resources for one or more servicessubscribed by the customer while taking into consideration historicalinformation, if any, available for the customer. TIS database 320 mayinclude historical order information and historical usage informationpertaining to orders subscribed by the customer.

TAS module 204 may be deployed using different deployment models. Incertain embodiments, the deployment includes a central component thatinterfaces with one or more distributed components. The distributedcomponents may, for example, be deployed as various data centers andaccordingly may also be referred to as data center components. Thecentral component includes capabilities to process orders andco-ordinate services in cloud infrastructure system 100, while the datacenter components provide capabilities for provisioning and operatingthe runtime system that provides the resources for the subscribedservices.

FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary distributed deployment of the TAS module,according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the embodimentdepicted in FIG. 4, the distributed deployment of TAS module 204includes a TAS central component 400 and one or more TAS Data Centers(DCs) components 402, 404 and 406. These components may be implementedin hardware, or software, or combinations thereof.

In one embodiment, the responsibilities of TAS central component 400include, without limitation, to provide a centralized component forreceiving customer orders, performing order-related business operationssuch as creating a new subscription, changing the service level for aservice in the subscription, changing the services included in thesubscription, and extending the time period of the subscription, orcanceling the subscription. The responsibilities of TAS centralcomponent 400 may also include maintaining and serving subscription dataneeded by cloud infrastructure system 100 and interfacing with ordermanagement module 214, support UI 216, cloud UI 212 and store UI 210 tohandle all the back-office interactions.

In one embodiment, the responsibilities of TAS DCs 402, 404 and 406include, without limitation, performing runtime operations fororchestrating the provisioning the resources for one or more servicessubscribed by the customer. TAS DCs 402, 404 and 406 also includecapabilities to perform operations such as locking, unlocking, enabling,or disabling a subscription order, collecting metrics related to theorder, determining the status of the order, and sending notificationevents related to the order.

In an exemplary operation of the distributed TAS system shown in FIG. 4,TAS central component 400 initially receives an order from a customervia cloud UI 212, store UI 210, via order management system 214, or viaorder database 224. In one embodiment, the customer represents a buyerwho has financial information and the authority to order and/or change asubscription. In one embodiment, the order information includesinformation identifying the customer, the type of services that thecustomer wishes to subscribe to, and an account administrator who willbe responsible for handling the request. In certain embodiments, theaccount administrator may be nominated by the customer when the customerplaces an order for a subscription to one or more services offered bycloud infrastructure system 100. Based on the order information, the TAScentral component 400 identifies the data region of the world such asAmericas, EMEA, or Asia Pacific in which the order originates and theparticular TAS DCs (for e.g., 402, 404 or 406) that will be deployed forprovisioning the order. In one embodiment, the particular TAS DC (fore.g., from among DCs 402, 404 or 406) that will be deployed forprovisioning the order is determined based on the geographical dataregion in which the request originated.

TAS central component 400 then sends the order request to the particularTAS DC in which to provision services for the order request. In oneembodiment, TAS DCs 402, 404 or 406 identify a service administrator andan identity domain administrator responsible for processing the orderrequest at the particular TAS DC. The service administrator and theidentity administrator may be nominated by the account administratoridentified in the subscription order. TAS DCs 402, 404 or 406communicate with SDI module 204 to orchestrate the provisioning ofphysical resources for the order. SDI component 204 in respective TASDCs 402, 404 or 406 allocates resources and configures those resourcesneeded to fulfill the subscription order.

In certain embodiments, TAS DCs, 402, 404 or 406 identify an identitydomain associated with the subscription. SDI component 206 may providethe identity domain information to IDM component 200 (shown in FIG. 2)for identifying an existing identity domain or creating a new identitydomain. Once the order is provisioned by the SDI module at respectiveTAS DCs, 402, 404 or 406, TAS central component 400 may placeinformation regarding the provisioned resources in a support system, viasupport UI 216. Information may include, for example, displayingresource metrics related to the services and usage statistics of theservices.

Once in operation, at each data center, EM module 208 to periodicallycollects usage statistics for each of the provisioned servicesprovisioned at that data center, such as the amount of storage used, theamount data transferred, the number of users, and the amount of systemup time and system down time. These statistics are provided to the TASDC that is local to EM module 208 (i.e., at the same data center). In anembodiment, the TAS DCs may use the usage statistics to determinewhether overuse of a service has occurred, and if so, to determine howmuch to bill for the overage, and provide the billing information toorder management system 214.

FIG. 5 is a simplified block diagram illustrating the interactions ofthe SDI module with one or more modules in the cloud infrastructuresystem, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Inone embodiment, SDI module 206 interacts with TAS module 204 toprovision resources for services in a subscription order received by TASmodule 204. In certain embodiments, one or more of the modulesillustrated in FIG. 5 may be modules within cloud infrastructure system100. In other embodiments, one or more of the modules that interact withSDI module 206 may be outside cloud infrastructure system 100. Inaddition, alternative embodiments may have more or less modules thanthose shown in FIG. 5. These modules may be implemented in hardware, orsoftware, or combinations thereof.

In one embodiment, the modules in SDI module 206 may include one or moremodules in SaaS platform 102 and PaaS platform 104 in cloudinfrastructure system 100.

In order to perform provisioning of resources for various services, SDImodule 206 may interact with various other modules, each customized tohelp with provisioning resources for a particular type of service. Forexample, as illustrated in FIG. 5, SDI module 206 may interact with aJava service provisioning control module 500 to provision Java cloudservices. In one embodiment, Java service provisioning control component500 may deploy a Java Cloud Service (JCS) assembly specified by SDImodule 206 that includes a set of tasks to be performed to provisionJava cloud services. Infrastructure resources 106 then determines theresources needed to provision the Java cloud services.

As other examples, SDI module 206 may interact with one or more modulessuch as a Virtual Assembly Builder (VAB) module 502, an ApplicationExpress (APEX) deployer module 504, a Virtual Machine (VM) module 506,an IDM module 200, and a database machine module 118. VAB module 502includes capabilities to configure and provision complete multi-tierapplication environments. In one embodiment, VAB module 502 deploys aMiddleware (MW) service assembly specified by SDI module 206 toprovision a MW service in cloud infrastructure system 100 using theservices provided by VM module 506. APEX deployer module 504 includescapabilities to configure and provision database services. In oneembodiment, APEX deployer module 504 deploys a database service assemblyspecified by SDI module 206 to provision a database service in cloudinfrastructure system 100 using the resources provided by infrastructureresources 106. SDI module 206 interacts with IDM module 200 to provideidentity services such as access management across multiple applicationsin cloud infrastructure system 100.

FIG. 6 depicts a simplified high level diagram of sub-modules of the SDImodule according to an embodiment of the present invention. In theembodiment depicted in FIG. 6, SDI module 206 includes a SDI-WebServices (WS) module 600, an SDI request controller module 602, an SDItask manager module 604, an SDI monitoring module 606, an SDI dataaccess module 608, an SDI common library module 610, and an SDIconnector module 612. These modules may be implemented in hardware, orsoftware, or combinations thereof SDI module 206 depicted in FIG. 6 andits various modules are meant for illustrative purposes only and are notintended to limit the scope of embodiments of the present invention.Alternative embodiments may have more or less modules than those shownin FIG. 6. These modules and their functions are described in detailbelow.

SDI-WS module 600 includes capabilities for receiving a step in thebusiness associated with an order from business process executor 316 ofTAS component 204. In one embodiment, SDI-WS module 600 parses each stepof the business process and converts the step into an internalrepresentation used by SDI module 206. In one embodiment, each step ofthe business process associated with the order arrives through a webservice processing layer (for example, via System Provisioning APIdiscussed in FIG. 3B) in the form of a SOAP request to SDI-WS module600.

SDI request controller module 602 is the internal request processingengine in SDI module 206 and includes capabilities for performingasynchronous request processing, concurrent request processing,concurrent task processing, fault tolerant and recovery and plug-insupport related to the order requests. In one embodiment, SDI requestcontroller module 602 accepts each step of the business processassociated with the order from SDI-WS module 600 and submits the step toSDI task manager module 604.

SDI task manager module 604 translates each step specified in thebusiness process into a series of tasks for provisioning the particularstep. Once the set of tasks for a specific step have been provisioned,SDI task manager module 604 responds to business process executor 316 inTAS module 204 with operation results that includes an order payloadwith details of the resources provisioned to fulfill the particularstep. SDI task manager module 604 repeats this process until all thesteps of the particular business process associated with the order arecomplete.

In certain embodiments, SDI task manager module 604 translates each stepspecified in the business process into a series of tasks by utilizingthe services of SDI connector module 612. SDI connector module 612includes one or more connectors for handling the deployment of tasksspecified by SDI task manager module 604 to provision one or moreservices related to the order request. In certain embodiments, one ormore of the connectors may handle tasks that are specific to aparticular service type while other connectors may handle tasks that arecommon across different service types. In one embodiment, SDI connectormodule 612 includes a set of connectors (wrapper APIs) that interfacewith one or more of the external modules (shown in FIG. 5) in cloudinfrastructure system 100 to provision the services and resourcesrelated to the order request. For example, Application Express (APEX)connector 614 interfaces with APEX deployer module 504 to provisiondatabase services. Web Center Connector 616 (WCC) interfaces with a webcenter module in cloud infrastructure system 100 to provision webservices. The web center module is a user engagement platform andincludes capabilities for delivering connectivity between people andinformation in cloud infrastructure system 100.

In certain embodiments, Middleware Applications (MA) connector 618interfaces with VAB module 502 in cloud infrastructure system 100 toprovision middleware application services. NUVIAQ connector 620interfaces with VAB module 502 to provision Java services. IDM connector622 interfaces with IDM module 200 to provide identity and accessmanagement for users subscribing to services and resources in cloudinfrastructure system 100. Virtual Assembly Builder (VAB) connector 624interfaces with VAB module 502 in cloud infrastructure system 100 toconfigure and provision complete multi-tier application environments.Plug-in connector 626 interfaces with EM module 208 to manage andmonitor the components in cloud infrastructure system 100. HTTP serverconnector 628 interfaces with one or more web servers in the PaaSplatform to provide connection services to users in cloud infrastructuresystem 100.

SDI monitoring module 606 in SDI module 206 provides an inboundinterface for receiving Java Management Extensions (JMX) requests. SDImonitoring module 606 also provides tools for managing and monitoringapplications, system objects and devices in cloud infrastructure system100. SDI-data access module 608 provides an inbound interface forreceiving Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) requests. SDI-data accessmodule 608 supports data access and provides object relational mapping,java transaction API services, data access objects, and connectionpooling in cloud infrastructure system 100. The SDI-common librarymodule 610 provides configuration support for the modules in SDI module206.

The embodiment of FIG. 6 discussed above describes modules in the SDImodule according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7Adepicts a simplified flowchart 700 depicting processing that may beperformed by the modules of the SDI module in the cloud infrastructuresystem, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Theprocessing depicted in FIG. 7A may be implemented in software (e.g.,code, instructions, program) executed by one or more processors,hardware, or combinations thereof. The software may be stored in memory(e.g., on a memory device, on a non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium). The particular series of processing steps depicted in FIG. 7Ais not intended to be limiting. Other sequences of steps may also beperformed according to alternative embodiments. For example, alternativeembodiments of the present invention may perform the steps outlinedabove in a different order. Moreover, the individual steps illustratedin FIG. 7A may include multiple sub-steps that may be performed invarious sequences as appropriate to the individual step. Furthermore,additional steps may be added or removed depending on the particularapplications. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize manyvariations, modifications, and alternatives. In one embodiment, theprocessing depicted in FIG. 7A may be performed by one or more modulesin the SDI module 206 discussed in detail in FIG. 6.

At 702, a business process associated with a subscription order isreceived. In one embodiment, SDI-WS module 600 in SDI module 206receives one or more steps in the business process associated with thesubscription order from business process executor 316. At 704, each stepin the business process is translated into a series of tasks forprovisioning resources for the subscription order. In one embodiment,SDI task manager module 604 in SDI module 206 translates each stepspecified in the business process into a series of tasks by utilizingthe services of SDI connector module 612. At 706, the subscription orderis provisioned based on the series of tasks. In one embodiment, and asdiscussed in FIG. 6, SDI connector module 612 includes one or moreconnectors for handling the deployment of tasks specified by SDI taskmanager module 604 to provision resources for the services in thesubscription order.

As described above with respect to FIG. 6, SDI task manager module 604translates each step specified in a business process into a series oftasks by utilizing the services of SDI connector module 612, which mayinclude one or more connectors for handling the deployment of tasksspecified by SDI task manager module 604 to provision one or moreservices related to the order request. One or more of the connectors mayhandle tasks that are specific to a particular service type while otherconnectors may handle tasks that are common across different servicetypes. In one embodiment, SDI connector module 612 includes a set ofconnectors (wrapper APIs) that interface with one or more of theexternal modules (shown in FIG. 5) in cloud infrastructure system 100 toprovision the services and resources related to the order request. Forexample, a NUVIAQ connector 620 interfaces with VAB module 502 toprovision Java services.

FIG. 7B depicts a simplified block diagram showing the high-levelarchitecture of a Nuviaq system 710 and its relationships with othercloud infrastructure components according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. It should be appreciated that Nuviaq system 710depicted in FIG. 7B may have other components than those depicted inFIG. 7B. Further, the embodiment shown in FIG. 7B is only one example ofa cloud infrastructure system that may incorporate an embodiment of theinvention. In some other embodiments, Nuviaq system 710 may have more orfewer components than shown in FIG. 7B, may combine two or morecomponents, or may have a different configuration or arrangement ofcomponents.

In certain embodiments, Nuviaq system 710 may be configured to provide aruntime engine for orchestrating PaaS operations. Nuviaq system 710 mayprovide a web service API to facilitate integration with other productsand services. Nuviaq system 710 also provides support for complexworkflows in system provisioning, application deployment and associatedlifecycle operations and integrates with management and monitoringsolutions.

In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 7B, Nuviaq system 710 comprises aNuviaq proxy 712, a Nuviaq manager 714, and a Nuviaq database 716. Incertain embodiments, Nuviaq manager 714 provides an entry point intoNuviaq system 710, providing secure access to PaaS operations via theweb service API. Internally, it tracks system state in the database andcontrols job execution on the workflow engine. In a public cloud, Nuviaqmanager 714 may be accessed by the Tenant Provisioning system (SDI 206)and the Tenant Console, to drive provisioning and deployment operationsrespectively.

In one embodiment, Nuviaq manager 714 executes jobs asynchronously viaan internal workflow engine. A job may be a sequence of actions specificto a given PaaS workflow. Actions may be performed in order, withfailure in any step resulting in failure of the overall job. Manyworkflow actions delegate to external systems relevant to the workflow,such as the EM command line interface (cli). In one implementation,Nuviaq manager 714 application may be hosted in a 2-node WebLogiccluster with associated HTTP server (e.g., Oracle HTTP Server or OHS)instance, running inside a firewall.

In certain embodiments, Nuviaq proxy 712 is the public access point tothe Nuviaq API. In one embodiment, only Public API may be exposed here.Requests received by proxy 712 may be forwarded to Nuviaq manager 714.In one embodiment,

Nuviaq proxy 712 runs outside the firewall, whereas manager 714 runswithin the firewall. In one implementation, Nuviaq proxy 712 applicationruns on a WebLogic cluster running outside the firewall.

In certain embodiments, Nuviaq database 716 tracks various domainentities such as, without limitation, platform instance, deploymentplan, application, WebLogic domain, jobs, alerts, and the like. Primarykeys may be aligned with the Service Database where appropriate.

In one embodiment, Platform Instance 718 may contain all resourcesrequired for a WebLogic service for a given tenant.

Nuviaq system 710 may rely on additional systems of cloud infrastructuresystem 100 to carry out the workflows used the WebLogic cloud service.These dependencies may include dependencies on SDI 206, IDM 200, a virusscan system, a service database, CRM instances, and the like. Forexample, Nuviaq system 710 may depend upon functions performed by anAssembly Deployer in SDI 206. In one embodiment, the Assembly Deployeris a system to manage interactions with OVAB (Oracle Virtual AssemblyBuilder) and OVM (Oracle Virtual Machine). Capabilities of the AssemblyDeployer used by Nuviaq system 710 may include, without limitation,functions for deploying an assembly, un-deploying an assembly,describing assembly deployment, scaling appliance, and the like. In oneimplementation, Nuviaq system 710 accesses the Assembly Deployer via aweb service API.

In certain embodiments, security policies may require certain artifactsto be scanned for viruses before being deployed to an application. Cloudinfrastructure system 100 may provide a virus scan system for thispurpose that provides scanning as a service for multiple components ofthe public cloud.

In certain embodiments, a public cloud infrastructure may maintain aService Database containing information about tenants (e.g., customers)and their service subscriptions. Nuviaq workflows may access to thisdata in order to properly configure a WebLogic service as a client toother services that the tenant also subscribes to.

Nuviaq system 710 may depend on IDM 200 for its security integration. Incertain embodiments, Java Service instances can be associated with a CRMinstance. The association allows user applications deployed to theirJava Service instance to access a CRM instance though Web Service calls.

Various entities may use services provided by Nuviaq system 710. Theseclients of Nuviaq system 710 may include: a Tenant Console, which is anmanagement server (e.g., Oracle Management Server) based user interfacethat customers may access to manage their applications on their platforminstances; several IDEs such as Oracle IDEs (JDeveloper, NetBeans, andOEPE) have been extended to offer access to application lifecyclemanagement operations; one or more Command Line Interfaces (CLIs) thatare available to access lifecycle operations on the platform instances.

Provisioning use case for Nuviaq system 710—A Provision PlatformInstance use case is realized via the Create Platform Instance operationof the Nuviaq API. In the context of cloud infrastructure system 100, aservice instance with respect to the Nuviaq system corresponds to aNuviaq platform instance. A platform instance is assigned a uniqueidentifier is used on all subsequent operations related to thisinstance. A Platform

Deployment descriptor provided to the Create Platform Instance actionallows for properties to be set that modify the configuration of theplatform instance to meet the subscription requirements of the tenant.These properties may include for example:

Property#1: oracle.cloud.service.weblogic.size

-   -   Values: BASIC, STANDARD, ENTERPRISE    -   Description: Specifies the subscription type. This impacts the        number of servers, database limits and quality of service        settings.        Property#2: oracle.cloud.service.weblogic.trial    -   Values: TRUE, FALSE    -   Description: Indicates whether or not this is a trial        subscription.        Property#3: oracle.cloud.service.weblogic.crm

Values: CRM Service ID

-   -   Description: Identifies a CRM service to be associated with this        WebLogic service instance.

FIG. 7C depicts an example sequence diagram illustrating steps of aprovisioning process using a Nuviaq system according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. The sequence diagram depicted in FIG. 7C is onlyan example and is not intended to be limiting.

Install/Update Application use case—The Install Application operationdeploys an application to a running WebLogic Server after validatingthat the application archive meets the security requirements of thePublic Cloud. In one embodiment, the Application Deployment descriptorprovided to the Install Application action allows for properties to beset that modify the configuration of the application to meet thesubscription requirements of the tenant. These properties may includefor example:

Property: oracle.cloud.service.weblogic.state

Values: RUNNING, STOPPED

Description: Specifies the initial state of the application afterdeployment.

FIG. 7D depicts TAS 204 and SDI 206 working in cooperation areresponsible for provisioning resources for one or more services orderedby a customer from a set of services offered by cloud infrastructuresystem 100. For example, in one embodiment, for provisioning a databaseservice, the automated provisioning flow may be as follows for a paidsubscription:

(1) Customer places an order for a paid subscription to a service viaStore UI 210.(2) TAS 204 receives the subscription order.(3) When services are available TAS 204 initiates provisioning by usingthe services of SDI 206. TAS 204 may perform business processorchestration, which will execute the relevant business process tocomplete the provisioning aspect of the order. In one embodiment, TAS204 may use a BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) Process Managerto orchestrate the steps involved in the provisioning and handle thelifecycle operations.(4) In one embodiment, to provision a database service, SDI 206 may callPLSQL APIs in the CLOUD UI to associate a schema for the requestingcustomer.(5) After successful association of a schema to the customer, SDIsignals TAS and TAS send a notification to the customer that thedatabase service is now available for use by the customer.(6) The customer may log into cloud infrastructure system 100 (e.g.,using an URAL such as cloud.oracle.com) and activate the service.

FIG. 7E depicts an example sequence diagram illustrating steps of adeployment process using a Nuviaq system according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. The sequence diagram depicted in FIG. 7E is onlyan example and is not intended to be limiting.

Accordingly, in certain embodiments, TAS 204 and SDI 206 working incooperation are responsible for provisioning resources for one or moreservices ordered by a customer from a set of services offered by cloudinfrastructure system 100. For example, in one embodiment, forprovisioning a database service, the automated provisioning flow may beas follows for a paid subscription:

(1) Customer places an order for a paid subscription to a service viaStore UI 210.(2) TAS 204 receives the subscription order.(3) When services are available TAS 204 initiates provisioning by usingthe services of SDI 206. TAS 204 may perform business processorchestration, which will execute the relevant business process tocomplete the provisioning aspect of the order. In one embodiment, TAS204 may use a BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) Process Managerto orchestrate the steps involved in the provisioning and handle thelifecycle operations.(4) In one embodiment, to provision a database service, SDI 206 may callPLSQL APIs in the CLOUD UI 212 to associate a schema for the requestingcustomer.(5) After successful association of a schema to the customer, SDIsignals TAS and TAS send a notification to the customer that thedatabase service is now available for use by the customer.(6) The customer may log into cloud infrastructure system 100 (e.g.,using an URAL such as cloud.oracle.com) and activate the service.

In some embodiments, a customer may also be allowed to subscribe to aservice on a trial basis. For example, such a trial order may bereceived via cloud UI 212 (e.g., using cloud.oracle.com).

In certain embodiments, cloud infrastructure system 100 enablesunderlying hardware and service instances to be shared between customersor tenants. For example, the database service may be provisioned asshown in FIG. 7F in one embodiment. FIG. 7F depicts multiple Exadatacompute nodes 730 and 732, each providing a database instanceprovisioned for the database service. For example, compute node 730provides a database instance 734 for a database service. Each Exadatacompute node may have multiple database instances.

In certain embodiments, each database instance can comprise multipleschemas and the schemas may be associated with different customers ortenants. For example, in FIG. 7F, database instance 734 provides twoschemas 736 and 738, each with its own tables. Schema 736 may beassociated with a first customer or tenant subscribing to a databaseservice and schema 738 may be associated with a second customer ortenant subscribing to the database service. Each tenant gets acompletely isolated schema. Each schema acts like a container that canmanage database objects including tables, views, stored procedures,triggers, etc. for the associated tenant. Each schema may have onededicated tablespace, with each tablespace having one data file.

In this manner, a single database instance can provide database servicesto multiple tenants. This not only enables sharing of underlyinghardware resources but also enables sharing of service instance betweentenants.

In certain embodiments, such a multi-tenancy system is facilitated byIDM 200, which beneficially enables multiple separate customers, eachhaving their own separate identity domains, to use hardware and softwarethat is shared in the cloud. Consequently, there is no need for eachcustomer to have its own dedicated hardware or software resources, andin some cases resources that are not being used by some customers at aparticular moment can be used by other customers, thereby preventingthose resources from being wasted. For example, as depicted in FIG. 7F,a database instance can service multiple customers each with theirrespective identity domains. Although each such database serviceinstance can be a separate abstraction or view of a single physicalmulti-tenant database system that is shared among the many separateidentity domains, each such database service instance can have aseparate and potentially different schema than each other databaseservice instance has. Thus, the multi-tenant database system can storemappings between customer-specified database schemas and the identitydomains to which those database schemas pertain. The multi-tenantdatabase system can cause the database service instance for a particularidentity domain to use the schema that is mapped to that particularidentity domain.

The multi-tenancy can also be extended to other services such as theJava Service. For example, multiple customers can have a JAVA serviceinstance placed within their respective identity domains. Each suchidentity domain can have a JAVA virtual machine, which can be viewed asbeing a virtual “slice” of hardware. In one embodiment, a job-monitoringservice (e.g., Hudson) can be combined with a JAVA enterprise editionplatform (e.g., Oracle WebLogic) in the cloud to enable each separateidentity domain to have its own separate virtual “slice” of the JAVAenterprise edition platform. Such a job-monitoring service can, forexample, monitor the execution of repeated jobs, such as building asoftware project or jobs run by an operating system's time-based jobscheduler. Such repeated jobs can include the continuous building and/ortesting of software projects. Additionally or alternatively, suchrepeated jobs can include the monitoring of executions of operatingsystem-run jobs that are executed on machines that are remote from themachine on which the job-monitoring service executes.

According to a further embodiment, TAS and SDI support a role-drivennotification system including support for collapsing combinations. Forexample, according to the role-driven notification system, notificationsfrom TAS are tied to roles (e.g., buyer, account administrator, serviceadministrator, identity domain administrator, etc.). Different roles maybe registered to receive information about different events in thesystem (e.g., new order processing, trial termination, underutilization,etc.). For a given type of event, different templates may be used torestrict the details for a particular role (e.g., only a serviceadministrator is provided with temporary security credentials).

Further, according to the collapsing combinations embodiment, if a userpossesses multiple roles, role combinations are considered to selectcollapsed templates covering all details relevant to that user. Thisavoids duplicate role-specific notifications for the same logical event.There may also exist a hierarchy of roles which may include overlappingroles.

In some embodiments, the logic to trigger a notification is decoupledfrom the logic used to determine who should receive the notification andthe content of the notification. In one embodiment, SDI and TASimplement this system using a mapping strategy for different roles andassociated notifications. For example, a single user might havedifferent roles, and a notification subsystem knows which notificationsthe single user should receive using a customized notification mapping.Based upon the roles of the user, different combinations ofnotifications may be provided to the user.

Furthermore, the SDI may return metadata about the services and theenvironment to TAS, and TAS then uses the metadata to notify thecustomer and trigger a notification event.

Notification Service:

Customer notifications may be handled by the TAS-NS. TAS-NS providesrich notification services tailored to the TAS environment. Whileindividual components could easily send simple e-mail messages on theirown, the TAS-NS frees these components from having to address details offormatting, localization, content revision, and auditing. Instead,components can focus on defining the abstract notifications they need tosend out and the runtime variable data that accompanies individualnotifications.

Since it is desirable to send a single email notification to therelevant users (e.g., a user, a customer, a buyer, a tenantadministrator, a service administrator) with details of all thesubscribed services in a given order, the TAS system waits until allservice subscription responses are received from TAS module 204 for allorder payloads before it sends email notifications. It consolidates allservice subscription details into one or more emails (based on thedistinct set of recipients) and delivers them to the recipients.

A notification template is used for specific notification scenarios suchas an order processed notification, a trial about to terminatenotification, etc. These templates can be used to tailor thenotification messages and actions corresponding to such events.

Further, there may be a hierarchy of roles which may or may not includeoverlapping roles, and the same user may have multiple roles. In oneembodiment, restrictions may be placed on what can be sent to particularroles. Also, the notification system 805 may collapse notifications intothe fewest number of notifications. Further, hybrid combinations may begenerated and the blending of these hybrid notifications may occurbefore runtime, based on privileges or pre-registration.

Turning now to FIG. 8, which illustrates a system 800 for processingnotifications, in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention. In one embodiment, system 800 may include the TAS module 204(within the cloud infrastructure system 100) which includes thenotification system 805. Further, the notification system 805 mayinclude a notification subsystem 807, a metadata definition module 810,and a role database 815.

Within the cloud infrastructure system 100, overlapping roles may exist.In one embodiment, overlapping roles are roles that essentially includeall of the privileges of other roles. For example, an identity domainadministrator which generally has all of the roles of a serviceadministrator, whereas an account administrator does not have all of theroles of either a service administrator or an identity domainadministrator. Thus, the customer has access to the services associatedwith the role system for which the customer has initially signed up.

In a practical application, for a given customer signed up for aservice, that customer may be the account administrator, the identitydomain administrator, and the service administrator. In other words, asingle customer (or user) may have any number of overlapping roles.

In one embodiment, support may need to be fairly flexibly in thesoftware in order to accommodate for the situation where there is a veryfine grained mapping of each cloud infrastructure system 100 definedrole that is literally a different person in an organization, and somessages are sent out in some cases with fairly narrowed notifications.For example, the account administrator should not see the passwords (orprobably does not care to see them) or URLs for a particular service andinstead the account administrator is only interested in knowing thatcertain customers signed up for certain services (i.e., the accountadministrators are not concerned with the specifics of the allocations,but only which customers are allocated).

On the other hand, a service administrator for a particular servicewould desire to see the URLs, the SFTP account information, passwords,etc. for the particular service, but would not want to see that sameinformation for another service for which he/she is not the serviceadministrator.

Therefore, in order to avoid sending notifications (i.e., emails, SMS,etc.) which are not needed (or desired) by certain customers, a layer ofsoftware is generated to handle blending/collapsing (orfiltering/restricting) of notification inside the notification system805. As such, notifications are abstractly collapsed into the fewestpossible notifications if a user has multiple roles (this roleinformation is stored in the role database 815). So in particular,instead of getting two different notifications when the user isonboarding (i.e., if the user is the account administrator and theidentity domain administrator), only one notification is sent. Further,that notification would be a hybrid combination of the content of thetwo separate notifications.

In one embodiment, this may be achieved by pre-registering templatesthat match a desired layout. Accordingly, a number of variouscombinations are registered, and the software and the automation systemsthat are sending out the notification are triggered by the abstractevents, and then a notification subsystem 807 will determine based onthe recipients and the type of the templates which are generated,whether or not collapsing is possible and what set of notifications tosend to a particular user.

Further, each role has an associated notification template. Therefore,if a user is registered as both the account administrator and theidentity domain administrator for a service, then when notifications aregenerated the notification template for the account administrator andthe notification the template for the identity domain administrator willbe analyzed and a third notification template will be generated. Thisthird notification template will be a combination of the other twotemplates, and will include the information in a single notification forboth roles. Further, metadata for each template is maintained by themetadata definition data module 810 to be used when determining how toblend the notifications.

As such, the notification subsystem 807 is not concerned with whetherthere are three templates underneath, one template, or N templates. Thenotification subsystem 807 simply logically triggers a notification tothe set of users with the particular roles, with a reference to thepieces of metadata necessary to generated the blended notification.Therefore, how that maps into sets of templates, discreet messages, orcollapsed messages is hidden from the notification subsystem 807.Accordingly, the notification event itself is decoupled from the actualtemplates used to fulfill the notifications.

In one embodiment, registration of a template or a combination templatesmay be automated. For example, if roles A and B exist, and now acombination of the notifications for roles A and B is needed, then thecombination can be generated automatically. This may be done using XMLto generate a template pack, which is a combination of XML files andmetadata files used to form the combined template. Thus, newcombinations or templates can be registered using that metadata format.Therefore, if role A and role B exist, and there is a template for roleA and a template for role B, but no pre-registered template for acombination of role A and role B; then once it is determined that a useris both role A and role B, at that point, a combination template forrole A plus role B may be automatically generated for future use by thenotification subsystem 807. As such, the notification information foreach of the notification templates is stored in XML and the associationof a role with a notification template is stored in metadata.

Turning now to FIG. 9, which illustrates a method 900 showing processingthat may be performed by a notification system within the SDI module, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. At 902,notification templates which are each associated with roles are stored.At 904, a determination is made that a user is associated with more thanone role. Then, a determination is made of which of the templates areassociated with the roles of the user (906).

Further, at 908, the templates associated with the roles of the user arecombined into a new template. At 910, based on the new template, anotification is generated and the notification is sent to the user.

Referring next to FIG. 10, which illustrates a method 1000 which showingprocessing that may be performed by a notification system within the SDImodule, in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.At 1002, a role hierarchy and a notification hierarchy are stored. Adetermination is made of the location of the user in the hierarchies(1004). For example, the role hierarchy may have 10 levels and the usermay be at level 5. Therefore, the user has 4 “child” roles below him/herin the hierarchy. The notification hierarchy would work in a similarmanner.

At 1006, all the child templates in the hierarchy up to the location ofthe user in the hierarchy are collapsed, and a single collapsed templateis generated based on the template information from each of the childrenand the use level of the hierarchy (1008).

At 1010, based on the collapsed template a collapsed notification isgenerated. Accordingly, the fewest notifications will then be sent tothe user, based on the level in the role hierarchy of the user.

FIG. 11 is a simplified block diagram of a computing system 1100 thatmay be used in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. Forexample, cloud infrastructure system 100 may comprise one or morecomputing devices. System 1100 depicted in FIG. 11 may be an example ofone such computing device. Computer system 1100 is shown comprisinghardware elements that may be electrically coupled via a bus 1124. Thecomponents may include one or more processing units 1102, an inputsubsystem 1104, an output subsystem 1106, storage devices 1108, acomputer-readable storage media reader 1112 connected to acomputer-readable storage medium 1110, a communication subsystem 1114, aprocessing acceleration subsystem 1116, and working memory 1118.

Bus subsystem 1124 provides a mechanism for letting the variouscomponents and subsystems of computer system 1100 communicate with eachother as intended. Although bus subsystem 1124 is shown schematically asa single bus, alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilizemultiple busses.

Input subsystem 1104 may include one or more input devices such as amouse, a keyboard, a pointing device, a touchpad, etc. In general, inputsubsystem 1104 may include any device or mechanism for inputtinginformation to computer system 1100.

Output subsystem 1106 may include one or more output devices foroutputting information from computer system 1100. Examples of outputdevices include without limitation a display device, a printer, aprojection device, etc. In general, output subsystem 1106 may includeany device or mechanism for outputting information from computer system1100.

Processing unit(s) 1102 can include one or more processors, one or morecores of processors, combinations thereof, and the like. In someembodiments, processing unit(s) 1102 can include a general purposeprimary processor as well as one or more special purpose co-processorssuch as graphics processors, digital signal processors, or the like. Insome embodiments, some or all processing units 1102 can be implementedusing customized circuits, such as application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs) or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). In someembodiments, such integrated circuits execute instructions that arestored on the circuit itself. In other embodiments, processing unit(s)1102 can execute instructions stored in working memory 1118 or onstorage devices 1108. In various embodiments, processing units 1102 canexecute a variety of programs or code instructions and can maintainmultiple concurrently executing programs or processes. At any giventime, some or all of the program code to be executed can be resident insystem working memory 1118, storage devices 1108, and/or oncomputer-readable storage media 1110. Through suitable programming,processing units 1102 can provide various functionalities describedabove for performing event stream-related processing. In someembodiments, computer system 1100 may also include a processingacceleration unit 1116, which can include a digital signal processor(DSP), a special-purpose processor, and/or the like.

Storage device(s) 1108 may include memory devices such as disk drives,optical storage devices, and solid-state storage devices such as arandom access memory (RAM) and/or a read-only memory (ROM), which can beprogrammable, flash-updateable and/or the like. Software (programs, codemodules, instructions), which when executed by processing unit(s) 1102to provide the functionality described above, may be stored on storagedevices 1108. Storage devices 1108 may also provide a repository forstoring data used in accordance with embodiments of the presentinvention.

Computer-readable storage media reader 1112 can further be connected toa computer-readable storage medium 1110, together (and, optionally, incombination with storage device(s) 1108) comprehensively representingremote, local, fixed, and/or removable memory storage devices plusstorage media for temporarily and/or more permanently containingcomputer-readable information.

Communications subsystem 1114 may permit data to be exchanged withnetwork 710 and/or any other computers described above with respect tosystem environment 700. Communication subsystem 1114 serves as aninterface for receiving data from and transmitting data to other systemsfrom computer system 1100. The communication may be provided using wiredor wireless protocols. For example, communication subsystem 1114 mayenable computer 1100 to connect to a client device via the Internet.Communication subsystem 1114 may comprise a modem, a network card(wireless or wired), an infra-red communication device, a GPS receiver,etc.

Working memory subsystem 1118 may include a number of memories includinga main random access memory (RAM) for storage of instructions and dataduring program execution and a read only memory (ROM) in which fixedinstructions are stored. Software elements such as an operating system1120 and/or other code 1122, such as an application program (which maybe a client application, Web browser, mid-tier application, RDBMS,etc.), may be stored in working memory 1118. In an exemplary embodiment,working memory 1118 may include executable code and associated datastructures (such as caches) used for processing events and enablingvariable duration windows processing as described above.

It should be appreciated that alternative embodiments of computer system1100 may have more or less components with numerous variations from thatdescribed above. For example, customized hardware might also be usedand/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software(including portable software, such as applets), or both. Further,connection to other computing devices such as network input/outputdevices may be employed.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been described,various modifications, alterations, alternative constructions, andequivalents are also encompassed within the scope of the invention.Embodiments of the present invention are not restricted to operationwithin certain specific data processing environments, but are free tooperate within a plurality of data processing environments.Additionally, although embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed using a particular series of transactions and steps, it shouldbe apparent to those skilled in the art that the scope of the presentinvention is not limited to the described series of transactions andsteps.

Further, while embodiments of the present invention have been describedusing a particular combination of hardware and software, it should berecognized that other combinations of hardware and software are alsowithin the scope of the present invention. Embodiments of the presentinvention may be implemented only in hardware, or only in software, orusing combinations thereof. The various processes described herein canbe implemented on the same processor or different processors in anycombination. Accordingly, where components or modules are described asbeing configured to perform certain operations, such configuration canbe accomplished, e.g., by designing electronic circuits to perform theoperation, by programming programmable electronic circuits (such asmicroprocessors) to perform the operation, or any combination thereof.Processes can communicate using a variety of techniques including butnot limited to conventional techniques for interprocess communication,and different pairs of processes may use different techniques, or thesame pair of processes may use different techniques at different times.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, beevident that additions, subtractions, deletions, and other modificationsand changes may be made thereunto without departing from the broaderspirit and scope as set forth in the claims. Thus, although specificinvention embodiments have been described, these are not intended to belimiting. Various modifications and equivalents are within the scope ofthe following claims.

That which is claimed is:
 1. A method of implementing role-drivennotification, the method comprising: storing, by a cloud infrastructuresystem including a plurality of computing devices, a plurality ofnotification templates, wherein each of the plurality of thenotification templates is associated with a role of a plurality ofroles; determining, by a computing device from the plurality ofcomputing devices, that a user is associated with a first role and asecond role of the plurality of roles; determining, by the computingdevice from the plurality of computing devices, that the first role isassociated with a first notification template from the plurality oftemplates and the second role is associated with a second notificationtemplate from the plurality of templates; combining, by the computingdevice from the plurality of computing devices, the first template andthe second template to generate a third template; based on the thirdtemplate, generating, by the computing device from the plurality ofcomputing devices, a notification; and sending, by the computing device,the notification to the user.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thecombining of the first notification template and the second notificationtemplate comprises removing any of the notification information from thefirst notification template of the second notification template that isredundant.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the third notificationtemplate comprises the least amount of notification informationnecessary from the first and second notification templates.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the plurality of roles are arranged in aroles hierarchy.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the plurality ofnotification templates are arranged in a template hierarchy which mapsto the roles hierarchy.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:determining, by the computing device, a location of the user in the rolehierarchy and the notification hierarchy; based on the location,collapsing each child notification templates below the location in thehierarchy into a single collapsed template; and based on the singlecollapsed template, generating a collapsed notification, wherein thecollapsed notification includes the fewest number of notificationsincluded within the role hierarchy.
 7. The method of claim 6, whereinone or more roles in the hierarchy of roles overlap.
 8. The method ofclaim 1, wherein restrictions are associated with one or more of theplurality of roles which restrict one or more of the notificationinformation from being included in the notification.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the plurality of templates are pre-registered and thecombining occurs prior to runtime.
 10. The method of claim 1, whereinthe notification information for each of the plurality of notificationtemplates are stored in XML and the association of a role with anotification template is stored in metadata.
 11. A cloud infrastructuresystem for implementing role-driven notification, the system comprising:a processor; and a storage device including sets of instructions storedthereon which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:store a plurality of notification templates, wherein each of theplurality of the notification templates are associated with a role of aplurality of roles; determine that a user is associated with a firstrole and a second role of the plurality of roles; determine that thefirst role is associated with a first notification template from theplurality of templates and the second role is associated with a secondnotification template from the plurality of templates; combine the firsttemplate and the second template to generate a third template; based onthe third template, generate a notification; and send the notificationto the user.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the combining of thefirst notification template and the second notification templatecomprises removing any of the notification information from the firstnotification template of the second notification template that isredundant.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein the third notificationtemplate comprises the least amount of notification informationnecessary from the first and second notification templates.
 14. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the plurality of roles are arranged in aroles hierarchy.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the plurality ofnotification templates are arranged in a template hierarchy which mapsto the roles hierarchy.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the sets ofinstructions when further executed by the processor, cause the processorto: determine a location of the user in the role hierarchy and thenotification hierarchy; based on the location, collapse each childnotification templates below the location in the hierarchy into a singlecollapsed template; and based on the single collapsed template, generatea collapsed notification, wherein the collapsed notification includesthe fewest number of notifications included within the role hierarchy.17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium for implementingrole-driven notifications having sets of instructions stored thereonwhich, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to: store aplurality of notification templates, wherein each of the plurality ofthe notification templates are associated with a role of a plurality ofroles; determine that a user is associated with a first role and asecond role of the plurality of roles; determine that the first role isassociated with a first notification template from the plurality oftemplates and the second role is associated with a second notificationtemplate from the plurality of templates; combine the first template andthe second template to generate a third template; based on the thirdtemplate, generate a notification; and send the notification to theuser.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17,wherein restrictions are associated with one or more of the plurality ofroles which restrict one or more of the notification information frombeing included in the notification.
 19. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the plurality of templatesare pre-registered and the combining occurs prior to runtime.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein thenotification information for each of the plurality of notificationtemplates are stored in XML and the association of a role with anotification template is stored in metadata.